Drivers Education, Sponsored by OG Racing
- Details
- Last Updated: Tuesday, 29 August 2023 08:25
Welcome to PCA Potomac's Drivers Education Program (DE). This program is not your High School Driver ED! The Potomac DE program provides you with an opportunity to improve your driving skills and learn to drive your car safely at speeds above highway limits with high accuracy on closed-circuit professional road courses. Currently we run our events on 6 different racetracks. Included are all three circuits at Summit Point (West Virginia), VIR (Alton, VA), Watkins Glen (NY), and Pitt Race (Wampum, PA). Many of these are tracks you have enjoyed seeing raced on TV.
As a novice DE participant, you will drive with an instructor who will teach you the safest, smoothest and most consistent way to drive as quickly as is safe for the conditions and your skill level at that time. Prerequisites for DE events include prior track time from another DE Program, Potomac's spring or fall High-Performance Driving Clinic (HPDC), or Autocross School and Autocross participation.
DE is not racing, but Potomac is the birthplace of the PCA Club Racing program and sponsors PCA’s oldest continuously held Club Race, having hosted the first PCA race west of the Mississippi in 1992, and holding one at Summit Point every year since. You can read more about Club Race here.
The focus of DE is and always will be safety for all participants and for their vehicles. DE differs from racing in several important ways. DE provides drivers with a learning environment where the goal is to improve their individual driving skills in a safe and fun way. The order in which drivers start or finish a DE session is irrelevant. Racing, by contrast, provides drivers with a competitive environment where the goal is to be the first across the finish line. DE stresses learning and consistent improvement of skills in a safe environment. Cars are permitted to pass, but only in specific areas of the track (passing zones) and with permission from the car being passed (passing signal). This permits cars to pass other cars only in straight sections of the track that are specifically designated as passing zones. To further increase the safety of the learning environment in a DE, course workers (flaggers) are positioned around the track to help communicate to the driver conditions or obstacles on and off the road surface. These can include slippery course conditions, potential mechanical issues with your car, another car approaching from the rear, and any actions that appear to be inconsistent with the safe learning environment that DE emphasizes.
A relatively new benefit to our DE program is the Driver Ambassador Program, which is a team of volunteers available to reach out to drivers new to PCA Potomac. These ambassadors can answer questions about any aspect of our DE program before and after event registration, as well as at the track, just look for the ambassador logo.
The goals in DE are 1) to be safe, 2) to have fun, and 3) to learn about driving your car smoothly and consistently. Threshold braking, cornering techniques, "the line", "heel and toe" and vehicle dynamics are among the topics reviewed on the track and in mandatory classroom sessions, taught by our experienced and certified driving instructors.
PCA Potomac is also a social club, and new participants are welcomed and appreciated by the entire DE community. Although we love our Porsches, we encourage other passenger car marques to participate. (SUVs and Trucks are not permitted by track rules. Firearms are not allowed during track events. No alcohol or recreational drugs while cars are on track.)
A Potomac DE-specific Tech Form is required for Potomac DEs, and can be found here: Tech Inspection Form
For information regarding COVID-19 protocols at our events, please watch this video:
To learn more about DEs, read our FAQ Page.
Read the 2019 DE message from the Chair
Drivers Education Schedule for 2023 (Tentative)
Registration for these events will open midnight (12:00) Wednesday morning, February 1, 2023
Final confirmed schedule to be released 2 weeks prior to this date
Date | Event | Circuit | Registration |
Saturday March 4th | Refresher for Potomac Instructors | Summit Point - Jefferson | Invitation Only |
Sunday March 5th | High Performance Driving Clinic (Spring HPDC) | SP Jefferson | Register |
Friday March 24th | National Instructor Training & Non-Instructed Groups | Summit Point - Main | Register |
Saturday - Sunday March 25th & 26th | First DE | Summit Point - Main | Register |
Friday April 14th - Sunday April 16th | Away DE | VIR | Register |
Friday May 12th - Sunday May 14th | Away DE | Watkins Glen | Register |
Saturday - Sunday June 3rd & 4th | Shenandoah DE | Summit Point - Shen | Register |
Friday June 23rd - Sunday June 25th | Away DE | Pitt Race | Register |
Friday July 7th | Non-instructed Day | Summit Point - Main | Register |
Saturday - Sunday July 8th & 9th | Mid-Summer DE | Summit Point - Main | Register |
Friday July 28th - Sunday July 30th | PorscheFest DE | Summit Point - Main | Register |
Saturday September 30th | High Performance Driving Clinic (Fall HPDC) | Summit Point - Jefferson | Register |
Sunday October 1st | Women's HPDC | Summit Point - Jefferson | Register |
Friday October 20th | Volunteer Day | Summit Point - Main | Register (Invitation Only) |
Saturday - Sunday October 21st & 22nd | Last DE | Summit Point - Main | Register |
*Solo/Advanced DE - non-instructed groups only - White, Black, Red group drivers |
The Drivers Education Team
Chair
Bob Mulligan & Susan Kimmitt
DE Registrars
David Evans, Jocelyn Lasher & Henrik Ojikutu
Track Registrar
Kenny Kong
Cashier
Carol Palitti
Track Coordinator
Ron Tilton
Co-Chief Instructors
Steve Wilson, Don Mattran, Sean Reiche & Brian Walsh
Instructor Development
Michael Kaunitz & Mark Salvador
Driver Ambassador Program
Lara Peirce & Jim Musgrave
Tire Rack Street Survival
Bill Dooley
Tech Chairs
David Diquollo, Daniel Salsbury & John Vrankovich
Track Stewards
Tim Kearns, Steve Vetter, Stephen Kiraly & Mark Salvador
Contact the Drivers Education team HERE
DE Co-Chairs
Bob Mulligan & Susan Kimmitt
DEChair@pcapotomac.org
Co-Chief Instructors
Steve Wilson, Don Mattran, Sean Reiche & Brian Walsh
Chiefinstructor@pcapotomac.org
Driver Ambassador Program
Lara Peirce & Jim Musgrave
driverambassador@pcapotomac.org
Tech Co-Chairs
John Vrankovich, David DiQuollo & Daniel Salsbury
Tech@pcapotomac.org
DE Registrars
David Evans, Jocelyn Lasher & Henrik Ojikutu
deregistrar@pcapotomac.org
Track Registrar
Kenny Kong
TrackRegistrar@pcapotomac.org
Safety Chair
Dirk Dekker
Safety@pcapotomac.org
Track Stewards
Tim Kearns, Steve Vetter & Stephen Kiraly
TrackSteward@pcapotomac.org
Cashier
Carol Palitti
DECashier@pcapotomac.org
Track Coordinator
Ron Tilton
TrackRentals@pcapotomac.org
PorscheFest Coordinator
Michael Kaunitz
mkaunitz@pcapotomac.org